Kristian G. Andersen
@K_G_Andersen
Infectious diseases & genomics. Immunologist in (voluntary) exile. Minimal sarcasm. Fierce HOA (Hater of Acronyms).
🧵 Thread
At sige det her er skræmmende læsning er en underdrivelse.
Meget af det @TyraGroveKrause @SSI_dk @SSTSundhed siger er simpelthen forkert, så lad os tage en kigger på det der bliver sagt og hvordan Danmark, igen, har givet op mht. coronaen.
🧵👇
twitter.com/igumrasmussen/status/1601497812059160576?s=61&t=bD1CQaMJmzSJKBHvLdE_8w
Future of testing
Like it or not (I don't..), but mass-scale clinical testing for COVID-19 is likely going away in the near future.
Just as we're entering a new wave 📈.
A 🧵 on priority areas I think we *must* focus on:
1️⃣ Wastewater surveillance
2️⃣ Clinical sequencing
3️⃣ Home testing
Important background article from @nature on some of these issues:
nature.com/articles/d41586-022-00788-y
Huanan market origin
We recently published two preprints that provide the strongest evidence yet that the COVID-19 pandemic began at a market selling live animals in Wuhan.
An almost mirror-image of SARS just two decades earlier.
zenodo.org/record/6291628
zenodo.org/record/6299600
Long 🧵 👇
Denmark COVID-19 situation - update
The most recent 🇩🇰 COVID-19 report from @SSI_dk was released earlier today 👇.
Let's take a look at some of the key numbers/graphs and provide some context for why I find the situation (and strategy) concerning 🧵.
files.ssi.dk/covid19/tendensrapport/rapport/ugentlige-tendenser-covid19-andre-luftvejs-uge7-2022-5l9s
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Denmark COVID-19 situation
Given discourse about 🇩🇰 COVID-19, it's necessary to point out that I - and likely most 🌎 ID experts - have no trouble understanding the 🇩🇰 data (which isn't unique).
It's about fundamental disagreements on the interpretation of the data and strategy chosen.
🧵👇 for nuance.
A few things first:
1. Denmark has very high vaccination and booster rates that *greatly* reduce disease.
2. Yes, people "with" and "for" COVID-19 are included in official statistics.
However, there's a big difference between "it's not as bad as it could be" vs "it's over".
"Let it rip"
As we are now in a "let it rip" strategy, I hope decision makes will remember that:
1. Disease is much milder in people with immunity, but by no means "mild" in many
2. Not all can be protected via vaccines and the virus is no less dangerous to them
3. Access and equity matter
4. Viruses mutate and new variants will emerge - with unknown virulence and phenotypes (although immune evasion is a given)
5. We don't understand the mechanism(s) of variant emergence
6. Immunity wanes - and we don't understand the potential role of antigenic sin/imprinting
Early SARS-CoV-2 sequencing contamination
Some comments on this preprint that made the rounds today.
Is this evidence of a lab-cultured ancestral SARS-CoV-2?
Nope - the data prove it's not, and likely we're just looking at common sample contamination from early clinical sequencing.
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researchsquare.com/article/rs-1330800/v1
❗️First up - this is not a dig at the paper or the authors - I think it's fine. However, the *conclusions* made based on this paper are way off base - as one might expect.
If you want the files behind my analysis, they're available here: console.cloud.google.com/storage/browser/andersen-lab_project_sars2-proximal-origins/2022.02_contaminated-samples?project=andersen-lab-primary
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Omicron
🦠 Omicron - on a scale from 1-10, how bad is this going to be? This one's a weirdo, so I'm a 3, a 10, or anything in-between.
A thread below with my take on some of the key questions.
outbreak.info/situation-reports/omicron
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